(also Genseric) He was king at the time of their greatest power. In 429he led all his people from Spain to Africa. The Roman general in Africa,Bonifacius (died 432), tried vainly to turn the Vandals back, but wasdefeated and forced to flee to Italy. After a triumphant progress acrossnorthern Africa, the Vandals captured Carthage in 439, and Gaiseric madethe city his capital. Vandal fleets raided Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica.In 455 Gaiseric used the death of the Roman emperor Valentinian III as apretext for the invasion of Rome. The city was undefended, and the Vandalsentered it peacefully, pillaged it for 14 days, and carried away itstreasures. When he withdrew, Gaiseric took as hostages Valentinian'swidow, the empress Eudoxia, and her two daughters, along with Romancitizens, who were treated as slaves. He then led his armies eastward,laying waste to Greece and Dalmatia and threatening Constantinople. Twomajor attempts to subdue the Vandals, by the Western Roman emperorMajorian (reigned 457-61) in 457 and by the Eastern Roman emperor Leo I(400?-74) in 468, were unsuccessful. The Eastern emperor Zeno was forcedto recognize Gaiseric and make peace with him in 476. Gaiseric wassucceeded by his son Hunneric, under whom the African empire of theVandals began to disintegrate.